Picture puzzle is a generic term for an article of manufacture that is used by people, primarily for amusement and recreation. In using a picture puzzle, a person typically assembles a coherent target image from disordered elements of the target image. Jigsaw puzzles are the most common type of picture puzzle and have been a staple amusement/recreation item for many years. Typically printed onto a finished side of a sheet of stiff cardboard, which is then die-cut, most jigsaw puzzles are of the interlocking type, where assembled pieces cannot be separated from one another without lifting one out of the plane of the puzzle. Variations have included puzzles of identically shaped interlocking pieces, puzzles printed on both sides, oddly shaped puzzles, puzzles of identically shaped rectangular pieces, and puzzles where the target image is a uniform color with no markings.
Picture puzzles have also been printed on sets of blocks of square cross section, including cubes, often with each side of each block being a section of one of four or six pictures. U.S. Pat. No. 1,636,371 to Kenney, U.S. Pat. No. 2,491,296 to Beder and U.S. Pat. No. 2,581,492 Lowe et al. are of this type. Puzzles on arrays of long, slender pieces, both square, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,581,492 to Lowe et al., and round, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,257,432 to Wetzel, are known.
Also known are picture puzzles exhibiting surface relief Interlocking picture puzzles that include joining sections of the puzzle at angles to form three-dimensional shapes are also known.
In the late 1990's, OddzOn, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., sold a product called Slivers (“a slice of puzzle fun!”). The Slivers product consisted of about 50 plastic pieces, each approximately a tenth of an inch thick, one inch wide, and four inches long. The slats were stacked face to face and the stack placed on its side in a closely fitted plastic box. Vertical slices of a target image were printed, or laminated, onto the exposed edges of the slats. When the slats were properly oriented and ordered in the stack, the target image would be assembled.
Additionally, the Slivers product had a different picture on each side of the stack, which enhanced the challenge of solving the puzzle by forcing the solver to discern which long edge of each slat belonged to each of the two pictures. And the two pictures were out of sequence with each other, so, when one was assembled, the other was disassembled. Each slat was formed with tabs projecting from opposite corners, which, in cooperation with the box, enforced the end to end orientation of the visible edge of a slat, while not enforcing which long edge was placed upward. This type of puzzle is generically referred to in this disclosure as a slat puzzle.
Particular advantages of a slat puzzle over a jigsaw puzzle, which provides a similar challenge to a solver, are: a more compact structure, particularly during assembly; the area for assembly being identical to the area of the finished puzzle; that the puzzle can easily be moved about or stored while partially assembled; and there is no need for a level surface for assembly.